Diana’s WRAP Story

After attending a workshop where Mary Ellen spoke in 2005, I brought the little red book to my therapist and told her I thought it would fix me. That was where I was after four years of psychiatric hospitalizations, lots of medications and a chronic liver disease diagnosis. I thought I was broken and was looking for ways to be ‘fixed’.

WRAP seemed like a logical, well thought out super glue to me and I went about using it to put my pieces back together, with the help of my therapist, case manager and a WRAP group I attended on and off for three years. I used it for navigating Hepatitis C treatment, (a year long, extremely harsh, chemotherapy-like treatment that takes numerous physical and emotional tolls) where I was cured (fixed).

WRAP helped me get my boys home from foster care. I was dealing with a court system where I had to make sure I was there every six months or they could have taken my boys away from me and placed them for adoption. So it ‘fixed’ my family.

I used it to get out of the tailspin of being in the psychiatric system, living with numerous diagnoses and taking up to seven medications at a time. So WRAP ‘fixed’ my brain.

I also used WRAP for heart surgery and that is a story in and of itself. I will say that my heart is now ‘fixed’ and I’m good as ever.
I have been using the word ‘fixed’ in apostrophes intentionally for the beginning of this story because for a long time I thought I was broken and needed fixing.

It didn’t matter that I am a trauma survivor and my earliest memories stem from the age of two and continued well into my adulthood. Or that I was protector of my five siblings as they were born, me being the oldest and have memories of shhhing them while hiding in a closet because of drinking and domestic fighting. I grew up feeling unloved and thinking I was broken and needed ‘fixing’.

Needless to say, when at the age of 54 I realized that I had lifelong experiences of hearing voices and having visions, I got real quiet and said nothing, thinking if I did I would wind up back in the psychiatric system and on meds again. I was a wee bit mad because I thought I was fixed and now here was something else about me that was broken.

But what has helped me about having a WRAP is that it’s not about being fixed.
It’s about self-empowerment while dealing with adversity.
It’s about keeping place for me when I thought I was not worthy of living on this earth and attempted to leave it numerous times.
It’s held space for hope in a concrete, factual sort of way when I thought I was hopeless.
It’s helped me steer a course through a myriad of anger and rage at the ones who caused so much pain in my life.
It’s helped me raise two boys into adulthood as a single parent.
It’s helped me learn how to create a network of friends who support all of whom I am, as I am rather stubborn, a bit of a freebird, and still struggle with feeling unloved.

And finally, WRAP has given me a way to share my story with others, as a facilitator and Advanced Level Facilitator, so others can learn to share their experiences in a way that spreads our stories of hope and resiliency.

Mary Ellen Copeland and her staff cannot address personal mental health problems and issues. We care very much about your concerns but we must focus our efforts on education and resource development. For more information on how to get help for yourself or the people you are supporting, please use the resources on this website.